The British are Coming
2013; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1556-5068
Autores Tópico(s)Cultural Industries and Urban Development
ResumoMuch has been written about the increase movement of black British artists to the US for better career opportunities, an indictment on the lack of choice in Britain. The BBC Controller of Drama Series and Serials, Kate Harwood’s complaint that black actors auditioning are “’posh Africans’ and not representative of all social classes,” or Midsomer Murders executive producer, Brian True-May warning that the inclusion of black or Asian faces in the series sully the “last bastion of Englishness,” exemplify the exclusive nature of British media and extends to film and theatre. This has caused British artists to think reflectively of their image in Britain. Writer/journalist Lola Adesioye notes, “We know that we are all children of immigrants. We are now on the 2nd and 3rd generation born of black Brits, but we know that we are not English ethnically.” As far back as 1996, Oscar nominee, Marianne Jean Baptiste, warned, They've got to come to terms with the fact that Britain is no longer a totally white place where people ride horses, wear long frocks and drink tea. David Harewood, one of the mainstays of the Showtime’s Homeland, declared, “Unfortunately, there really aren’t that many roles for authoritative, strong, black characters in this country…I would encourage young black British actors to get to America if they have ambition. They do seem to embrace a more diverse palate there.” Comments like these were echoed in personal interviews I did with Talawa’s AD Patricia Cumper, playwrights Agboluaje Oladipo, Rex Abano, and actress, Mercy Ojelade in a 2011 visit to London.Ironically, in the states, there have been similar complaints about the lack of inclusion and stereotypical roles African Americans are confined. Kate Masur, reviewing Spielberg’s Lincoln for the NYT, offers, “[I] t’s disappointing that in a movie devoted to explaining the abolition of slavery in the United States, African-American characters do almost nothing but passively wait for white men to liberate them.” Nelson George reviewing the Oscar nominated films with black subjects or characters–Django Unchained, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Flight and Lincoln–offers, “For the first time in recent memory race is central to several Oscar conversations. But the black characters’ humanity is hit or miss. These films raise the age-old question of whether white filmmakers are ready to grant black characters agency in their own screen lives.” While there is more opportunity for work, what effect, if any, has this movement had on challenging stereotypes and in broadening the complexity of black characters in film, TV and theatre, both in the US and Britain? Indeed, has this movement addressed Harewood’s larger issue: the development of “roles for authoritative, strong, black characters”?
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